Eagles Nest Expands

VIC BRADSHAW Daily News-Record
PUBLICATION: Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA)
Photo courtesy of Lantz Construction Company
SECTION: News
DATE: May 30, 2017

BRIDGEWATER — When Bridgewater College students return next fall, they’ll have a revamped and expanded gathering spot designed to be more functional for modern college students.

A large-scale renovation project in parts of two buildings will make the Eagles Nest area in the Kline Campus Center more flexible for students as well as improve accessibility to Student Life offices and the Campus Store.

Broadway’s Lantz Construction is the general contractor for the project that will cost BC about $3 million, said Anne Keeler, the college’s treasurer and vice president for finance. Reserve funds are being used to cover the cost of the approximately 22,000-square-feet of space being renovated.

Leslie Frere, vice president for student life and dean of students, said she wanted the student space to be in a good location on campus and be the type of space where students could hold meetings, work together, or just relax or study between classes.

The Eagles Nest, she said, should meet all those needs and have a major impact on student life.

“I think it’s going to be huge,” Frere said. “They don’t have a lot of gathering space currently.

“We’ve had such strong enrollment that everything feels full on campus, from the classrooms to event space, so they don’t have a lot of places to just be and have the opportunity to be flexible.”

Because space is at a premium, she said, groups often must reserve rooms for club meetings or move from place to place to find a good spot to gather. The Eagles Nest is expected to solve that problem.

“I think they’re going to spend a lot of time there because they can,” she said, “and because there might not be another place on campus that serves that purpose.”

Though other spaces are being changed, Keeler said creating the student center is the driving force for the project.

“It becomes,” she said, “kind of a buzz of activity on campus for student events.”

CONNECTED TO STUDENTS

Work on the Eagles Nest is underway and should be completed by the time students return to campus in the fall, as should the relocation of the Campus Store, a college-run retail location for convenience items and Bridgewater College merchandise.

To make room for the new Student Life offices, the store is being moved into a seldom-used former museum space on the ground floor of Cole Hall. The store will have street access at 2 E. College St. and will be closer to high-traffic areas, such as Nininger Hall.

The primary function of the Campus Store, Keeler said, was to sell gear that markets Bridgewater College, so moving it to a space that’s more accessible should boost sales.

“We like having that visibility to a public street,” she said.

Items stored in the museum have been moved to the archives at the Alexander Mack Library, Keeler said.

Also to be completed by fall is an update to the lobby area outside the main dining hall in Kline. The area gets “pretty well-worn,” she said, so new finishes and efficient lighting will be installed.

While most of the project will be completed by the fall, the new Student Life offices won’t be ready for use until January.

The offices, now in a hard-to-find spot on the second floor of nearly 90-year-old Rebecca Hall with no accessibility for disabled visitors, will be moving over winter break to the ground floor of Kline, mainly in the former Campus Store location.

The revamped space, Frere said, will allow employees whose work affects student life to be near each other rather than spread around campus, which should spark greater collaboration. They’ll also be closer to areas where students naturally will congregate.

“The Student Life staff is very excited to be more connected to the students,” she said. “Now we don’t really see them unless they’re in trouble.”

The renovation also will create a conference room to serve 20 to 22 people and another for six to eight people, Frere said.

Contact Vic Bradshaw at 574-6279 or vbradshaw@dnronline.com